Author: mariezhuikov

AI and Winter

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He who marvels at the beauty of the world in summer will find equal cause for wonder and admiration in winter. — John Burroughs

I’ve been circling artificial intelligence for a while now, like it’s a dangerous wounded animal. When AI results first showed up for my Google searches, they were pretty bad. But I’ve got to admit, the responses to my esoteric search queries (like “Literary quotes about Minnesota winters”) have gotten better lately. I guess the beast is learning.

Some high school students recently asked me if I used AI in my writing. I told them that I don’t, and that I can tell when blog posts are created with AI because the writing is generic. However, I admitted that I have considered using AI to generate ideas.

Today, I took the plunge on the idea front because I didn’t have a good winter quote already in my head. I typed in that search term above about Minnesota winters. This came back: While there might not be a specific literary quote explicitly mentioning “Minnesota winter,” quotes that capture the essence of a harsh, snowy, and solitary winter landscape could be applied to a Minnesota winter experience.

In the spirit of full disclosure, one of the quotes from my search is at the beginning of this post. Maybe AI isn’t so bad? And while I’m disclosing everything right now, I might as well say that my photo editing software uses AI to enhance images. I used it on the images that accompany this post, except for the bottom one. The photography teacher who introduced me to this software said that cameras can’t capture everything our eyes see. The editing software brings the photos closer to that ideal. I admit to loving the subtle changes the software makes to the original image. I’m not going to disclose what that software is here, however. I need to keep some secrets to myself. 😊

But I don’t want this post to be about AI. I want it to be about winter. I took these photos at our cabin, which is on a small lake in northern Minnesota. The sun was setting as Russ and I cooked dinner. As with this summer sunset from a few years ago, I had to neglect cooking duties to run outside and capture the light before it disappeared. Luckily, earlier in the day we’d gone snowshoeing and had packed a path down to the lake through the deep snow. I was able to pop on my Sorrels and jog through the cold to the frozen lakeshore with ease.

As I snapped a few photos, I marveled at the still, white landscape and the way the sun tinged the small ridges of snow collected on the lake a dull orange. My camera couldn’t capture those ridge colors very well, but AI helped bring them out a bit.

Normally, we’d be travelling somewhere beachy and warm this time of year to soak up the sun and Vitamin D. We decided not to do that this winter because I am . . . drumroll . . . retiring this spring. I only have two-and-a-half weeks of workdays left! I have too many projects to wrap up before then for a vacation. We are saving our beachy-warm trip for this May.

It’s been good, so far, to stick out the winter here this year. We’ve ridden the temperature swings, complained with our neighbors about the cold, shoveled roughly a ton of snow off our cabin deck, and gotten out cross-country skiing for the first time since the winter of 2022-23. (The snow conditions were too poor after that.) Besides, if we travelled to where the temperature is eighty degrees, we’d have to worry about sunburning our Minnesota-white skin, and then reacclimatizing once we got off the plane. I have not-so-fond memories of walking to our car in the Minneapolis airport parking lot without winter coats or gloves in minus-ten-below temps, since we left our winter outerwear in the car.

To sum it all up: I’m enjoying winter in Minnesota, and I’ve prodded the AI beast. Maybe it’s friendly?

Our lake and snowshoe path. This photo was not edited using AI. Maybe you can tell that it’s not quite as sharp as the others in this post.

My Book Comes out this Week!

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My collection of shorts stories, “The Path of Totality,” is being published this week by Cornerstone Press. It will still be on sale for a few more days for 20% off until the publication date, which is Feb. 11. You can order it from Cornerstone here.

I’m having a launch event Feb. 18th, 6:30 p.m., at one of my favorite cafes in Duluth—Wussow’s Concert Cafe. It’s being hosted by Zenith Bookstore. I’ll also be doing a reading/signing at Foxes and Fireflies Bookstore in Superior on March 1 from 1-3 p.m. If you’re in the area, please stop by!

Noted Superior, Wisconsin, author, Carol Dunbar is helping me with the Feb. 18th event. She is way more well-known than I am, having had two books published by a national publisher. She was nice enough to write a blurb for my book, which appears on its cover. She was also nice enough to volunteer for a question and answer discussion with me of our books and careers. We deal with many of the same themes in our writing, so it should be a cool event!

“Booklist,” which caters to libraries, recently reviewed “The Path of Totality.” Here’s what they said:

Love, in its numerous forms: romantic, parental, devotional, inspirational, and desperate, has a lingering presence in Zhuikov’s collection of tales. The title story describes a young couple’s emotional struggles after the devastating loss of a premature baby boy. While viewing the 2017 total solar eclipse, healing suddenly sprouts as something “flipped a reset switch” inside the wife. “Bog Boy” is a comically creepy tale illustrating that love truly has no limits. A teenage girl discovers the long-dead body of a young man entombed by peat in the woods, and the preserved corpse becomes her de facto boyfriend. “The Shower Singer” is a feel-good story about an aspiring musician who receives more than just a much-needed jolt of creativity when he hears a woman in the adjacent apartment singing lovely melodies in the shower. Other characters include a sleuthing widow obsessed with the strangeness of a house who ultimately pays a steep price for her curiosity, a hungry alien life form that stalks a college student in Biosphere 2, and a reference librarian with an extraordinary connection to sentient trees.

Finding Your Voice Through Writing

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Last week, I had the privilege of hearing a nationally known poet read at a local college. Kimiko Hahn was flown out from New York City by the college’s English Department to be part of its annual Rose Warner Reading Series. The college brings in a poet for a day who performs a morning reading and discussion with local high school students and an evening reading for the public. After the morning reading, the students break into groups where a “Northland Writer of Distinction” talks to them about writing and how to find their voice through it.

Poet Kimiko Hahn reads at the College of St. Scholastica.

I was one of three so-called writers of distinction. The other two were Sheila Packa, a former Duluth Poet Laureate, and Nick Trelstad, a published poet and high school English teacher. Having never done this event before, I was a bit nervous. Both the other writers were repeaters; they were also both wearing plaid. I had not received that memo! But now I know in case I get invited back.

I was not familiar with Hahn’s poetry, so I was looking forward to hearing her read for the students. Hahn’s mother died in a tragic car accident, so many of the poems she read in her soothing voice were about that. She also read political poems. But, since I am a science communicator, the ones that caught my attention most were pieces she wrote based on science stories in the New York Times. Hahn commented that she’s bad at science but is fascinated by it, especially entomology (bug science). She often takes a science news story and makes it into poetry.  She does this through typical fashion but also using a technique called erasure poetry.

This was a new one on me. In erasure poetry, which began in 1965, writers take an existing text – like a newspaper story or the Declaration of Independence – and blackout or erase words to create a poem. Sometimes they leave the words in their original formatting (with lots of blank space in between) or sometimes they reformat them. Visual artists use the technique, too. Hahn read the students her poem, “Erasing Love.” Then she asked them to figure out what original article’s topic was. Several students mentioned that it was a science or medical story, but I think everyone was surprised when Hahn said it was about a giant fish called an oarfish and that the professor studying it had the last name of Love. (At the end of her poem, she links to the original article.) I enjoy creating found poems (like this one based on Chinese scooter instructions) so I’m definitely going to try erasure poetry sometime soon.

Hahn’s poems delved into grief, love, and science, often containing subtle and not-so-subtle humor. She said she gains inspiration from writing prompts and that she writes as an outlet for her opinions and rambunctiousness. Her reading persona is not rambunctious, but during the q & a afterward, more of her personality shone through.

Then the students were split into groups with their respective local writer. Hahn was a tough act to follow! For my presentation, I told the students about my professional and creative writing careers. The students were from the same high school that I went to, and I wanted to show them that a career in writing is possible. I described my books and talked about how this blog helped me find my voice. I read them two posts that offer good examples of opinion writing, which I can’t do either in my day job or my novels. These were “The Jayme Closs Case and the Importance of News Headlines,” and “The Christmas City of the North Parade: Socially Sanctioned Child Abuse or Festive Community Event?”

There was no clock in the room. For the first group of students I spoke with, I blathered on about myself for so long, I ran out of time to read the Jayme Closs story, but I made up for that with the second group.

A few writer nerds were in the audience and asked good questions. After my talk, one girl introduced me to Dark Romance. If you haven’t heard of it, either, Dark Romance features kink and violence – darker themes that don’t sound all that romantic to me. I don’t think I’ll be pursuing it in any way.

My main points to the students were to write what they enjoy without worrying about what other people will think, to practice, and get feedback from people they trust. Of course, I encouraged them to start blogs since it’s a good way to practice and to get feedback from a supportive community.

Have you found that your blog is a good way to develop your writing voice?

On the Edge

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I snapped this while waiting for an appointment at my clinic. (Just a routine appointment.) I spent my time watching the progression of these window washers who were working on the hospital across the way. As you can see, the window that I took the picture out of could also use a wash. Maybe our building was next?

Their job was impressive not only due to the height but because it’s the dead of winter . . . in Duluth. That’s Lake Superior below/behind them. It was a calm, sunny day but nowhere near warm.

Everyone who walked through the waiting room and noticed the workers stopped to admire their bravery and derring-do. I don’t think any of us would have traded places, however.

Slumber Party Magic

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Growing up in the 1970s, I had plenty of opportunities to attend slumber parties. One of my favorite party places was the house of my best friend up the street, Jody. (She’s the one who had a horse.) She had all sorts of mysterious things at her house like a fortune-telling 8 ball. You could ask it a question, shake it, and the answer would appear through a dark, watery window in the bottom. I always thought the answers were a little lame, but it was fun to feel like I was receiving some magical advice. My friend’s family also had a Ouija Board that could supposedly be used to talk to the dead like in a séance.

One of my least favorite slumber party games was Bloody Mary. In this game, you go into the bathroom alone with a candle. You light the candle, turn out the lights, and look in the mirror. Say “Bloody Mary” three times slowly. It’s supposed to make Bloody Mary (whoever that is) appear. I didn’t like this game because I needed to be alone for it. I didn’t want to be alone if and when a creepy person appeared! I don’t recall ever doing the game myself, but I may have watched other people do it. (We bent the rules on being alone.) I don’t recall any specter appearing in the mirror, but we were scared out of our wits, which I guess was the whole point.

One of my favorite games was Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board. We played the version where one person lays down (there’s another version where a person sits in a chair). Everyone would gather around under dim lights and placed two fingers from each hand (index fingers) underneath them. The goal was to lift the person off the ground. If we would try to lift the person at this point, it wouldn’t work because we’d be giggling and uncoordinated. But if we tried to lift as we recited the chant associated with the game, the person would rise as if levitating.

The first record of this game came from a British Naval administrator in 1665 who saw a group of French girls doing it. The leader of the game (usually the person at the head) says, “She’s looking ill.” And everyone repeats that in a call and response a few times. Then the leader says, “She’s looking worse,” in the same call and response. Then, “She’s dying,” and “She’s dead.”

This initial ritual is completed when everyone stacks their hands atop the liftee person’s forehead, alternating so that their hands are separated by the hands of another person. The leader then tells the group that they are opening the liftee’s body to supernatural influences and that outside spirits are entering the body to make it lighter.

After that, everyone puts their fingers back under the person. The leader chants, “Light as a feather, stiff as a board,” repeating the phrase many times. Then the group begins lifting the person slowly. Unlike the first lifting attempt, this one should happen easily and for only a few inches. Then the group lowers the person back to the ground.

The game was spooky, exciting, and mysterious. How could we all lift such a weight with only a few fingers? I did a little research and discovered the game is actually based on physics. The weight of the person is divided equally among each lifter. The stiffness of the lifted player also helps the trick work. As the lifters chant, the liftee will become stiff and focused. Their rigid, tense body makes the lifting easier. The supernatural references just make the game more fun.

As with many things in life, the ultimate secret to the “magic” of this game is the synchronization of the group. Many hands (in this case, fingers) working together makes for light work.

Did you ever play these games, or something like them?

Bob Dylan, Revisited

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Image courtesy of ImdB.

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you may recall that I’ve written two other posts about Bob Dylan. Thus, the name of this post. Here’s another one!

I watched two Bob Dylan movies recently. The first, “A Complete Unknown,” inspired me to watch the second, “No Direction Home,” so I could get a better picture of the famous singer who spent his early years in my part of the world. I’m glad I watched both.

Of course, the first movie is the one that’s out in theaters now. It features Timothée Chalamet, the dishy French-American actor who portrays Dylan in his early years. Based on the book, “Dylan Goes Electric,” by Elijah Wald, the story begins with Dylan “escaping” his college experience at the University of Minnesota and traveling to New York City to meet his folk music hero, Woodie Guthrie, who was hospitalized with a neurological illness. Another folkie, Pete Seeger, takes Dylan under his wing, and his rise to stardom begins.

I liked that the story was told mainly through music; this was much more effective than a lot of talking. Chalamet’s portrayal of Dylan is superb as are the performances by the two actresses who portray his love interests from that time: Elle Fanning who plays his girlfriend Suze Rotolo/Sylvie Russo, and Monica Barbaro who plays singer Joan Baez. It helped me understand the pressures Dylan was under as a person and an artist. Even Dylan, who was an executive producer for the movie, liked it, so that’s saying something!

The movie concludes with Dylan’s performance in 1965 at the Newport Folk Festival, where he was backed by an electric band. The audience of folk purists and political activists reacted badly, with booing and shouts. Some people just couldn’t handle that something they loved had changed. As Google says, his performance, “was a shot heard round the world—Dylan’s declaration of musical independence, the end of the folk revival, and the birth of rock as the voice of a generation—and one of the defining moments in twentieth-century music.” There are still people who are upset by what they perceive as Dylan’s turning his back on acoustic folk music and political activism.

As I mentioned, “A Complete Unknown” left me wanting to know more, so I watched “No Direction Home,” a 2005 documentary by Martin Scorsese that’s available through PBS. It follows Dylan’s life for a year longer than the current movie, and features in-person interviews with Dylan, poet Allen Ginsberg, Suze Rotolo, Joan Baez, and Pete Seeger.

Seeing/hearing Dylan describe events from his life in his own words was so interesting! According to Wikipedia, the movie was well-received. It “creates a portrait that is deep, sympathetic, perceptive and yet finally leaves Dylan shrouded in mystery, which is where he properly lives.”

So, if like me, you found yourself wanting more after watching “A Complete Unknown,” I highly recommend “No Direction Home.” It helped me understand why there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell that Dylan will ever come back to Duluth no matter how we try to honor him. (The city has named a street after him, but he didn’t show up, much to the city’s dismay. He didn’t even show up for his Nobel Prize; he sure isn’t going to come back to Duluth!) We need to just leave the man alone.

Also, Suze Rotolo wrote a memoir about her time with Dylan, titled, “A Freewheelin’ Time,” which I plan to read someday.

I still remain happy that I’m not famous like Dylan. See my blog post from 2017 that explains why. Have you seen “A Complete Unknown?” If so, I’d love to hear your thoughts about the movie.

“The Path of Totality” Book Review

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Fellow writer and blogging friend Vickie Smith was kind enough to review my upcoming short story collection for the Wisconsin Writers Association. You can find the review here, plus a link to preorder the book at a discount. (It’s coming out on Feb. 11.) You can find out more about Vickie at her blog, “Writing Near the Lake.”

Like me, Vickie lives near Lake Superior. We support each other as writers, and I hope to return the reviewing favor when her first book is published!

Here’s an excerpt from her review: Zhuikov’s stories explore a wide range of human emotions – grief, duplicity, curiosity, loneliness, love, obsession, and fear – against a backdrop of both rural and urban worlds filled with the inexplicable, the mystical, and the paranormal. She skillfully combines these human emotions with well-crafted imaginative worlds as she delves into the everyday desires and struggles people face, making her tales intriguing reads to be enjoyed by everyone.

“Hot Frosty” Movie Guest Review and an Updated Drinking Game List

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Image courtesy of Netflix

Russ and I are fans of National Public Radio’s “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” news quiz humor show. In a recent edition, host Peter Sagal mentioned that holiday movies are being produced with a decidedly sexy bent. He named one in particular: “Hot Frosty.” This Netflix production is about a muscular snowman who comes to life after a young widow drapes him with a scarf that has magical properties. Needless to say, he keeps his “hot” physique once he’s human, and romance ensues. But he also keeps some of his cold properties, too, such as a penchant for eating ice and a below-freezing body temperature.

We decided that “Hot Frosty” was a good candidate for a drinking game, even though it wasn’t an official Hallmark movie. We set a date with my friend Sharon, with whom we had a riotous time four years ago enacting and enhancing this drinking game list.

This living snowman causes quite a stir while fixing a roof. Image courtesy of Netflix.

Although “Hot Frosty” didn’t contain as many troupes as a Hallmark movie, we still had fun watching it. In fact, it inspired us to enlarge our game list with a few new rules. I’ll post the revised version below Sharon’s review of the movie. Please note: Sharon provided this review after drinking to drown her sorrows after the Packers lost to the Vikings, and after playing our movie drinking game.

“It’s part PG-rated but it doesn’t go too far in the sexy category. It’s not like “Magic Mike.” Netflix, could you ramp it up a notch? The snowman had an interesting body but no substance.

“Women are usually colder than men. I dunno if it’s from our estrogen or what. We don’t want to snuggle up to men who are colder than we are. We want hot men! If someone was as cold as this guy is, it would put a damper on things.”

So, there you have it. Maybe not all that sexy, and probably too cold, but it was a fun way to spend an evening.

Here’s our freshly revised list.

RULES

Take one drink whenever:

A reference is made to a dead relative
The “Mayor” appears on screen
The main character’s name is related to Christmas (Holly, Nick, etc.)
Anytime someone disses fake Christmas trees
A newcomer partakes in an old family or town tradition
Hot chocolate, apple cider, or eggnog is on screen
A big city person is transplanted to a small town
Christmas caroling, a tree farm, baking cookies, or a snowman appears
Mistletoe or a scarf is on screen
A character makes a magic deal
Any time you hear “Jingle Bells”
The town is named something Christmas-y
An interracial couple appears
An angry, misdirected law enforcement officer appears

Take two drinks whenever:

Characters experience a ‘near-miss’ kiss
An obvious product advertisement appears
A snowball fight, ice skating, or dancing happens
An ugly sweater or tie appears
The characters are snowed in
Someone gets a makeover
A “Pride and Prejudice” reference is introduced (a character is named Darcy, a place named Pemberly)
Someone refers to a metaphor or uses intelligent phrasing
Someone refers to fishing or hunting
Someone with slicked-back hair expresses their hate for Christmas

Finish your drink whenever:

The cynic is filled with the Christmas spirit
It snows on Christmas
Someone selects a Christmas tree
The main characters bake/cook something together, or Christmas-themed food is mentioned
Bad art appears or a literary reference is made
Dissonant architecture appears (for instance, a lighthouse in Wyoming)
Accordion music happens, especially if it’s playing Jingle Bells

Take a shot whenever:

The movie stars Candace Cameron-Bure, Lacey Chabert, or Andrew Walker appear
The main characters fall in love
The main characters kiss

The Top Meanders of 2024

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Putting the “Happy” Back into New Years

Putting the “Happy” Back into New Years

Twenty twenty-four began with a bang on my blog. One of my first posts of the year was its most popular. It dealt with the death of my sister many years ago during New Years and the effect it had on me and my family. I wrote it as a guest post for the Happiness Between Tails blog. (Thanks again, da-Al!) I plan to raise yet another toast to my sister this New Years.

The Minute Men and the Minister

The Minute Men and the Minister

Second-most-popular was this post about my New England colonial ancestors. I found out rather by happenstance that they founded two towns (one in Massachusetts and one in Canda) and that two statues have been erected in their memory. Also, one penned the famous words: a government of the people, by the people and for the people. All this while I was actually looking for something else! I’m not sure why this post is so popular; perhaps because it deals with some American icons.

If I Were a Real Photographer

If I Were a Real Photographer . . .

I still utter this phrase more often than I would like. Because I remain tied to the workaday world, I cannot run off, camera in hand, to pursue the glorious shots I know that are out there. My retirement is looming, however. This spring, I hope to say that phrase a lot less often, and to have the photos to show for it.

Thank you, dear readers, for following my meanderings through Ireland, Scotland, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Minnesota this year, as well as those more internal meanderings. I wish you a good end to the year and an even better 2025!